The present disclosure provides a method. The method includes forming a resist layer on a patterned substrate; collecting first overlay data from the patterned substrate; determining an overlay compensation based on mapping of second overlay data from an integrated circuit (IC) pattern to the first overlay data from the patterned substrate; performing a compensation process to a lithography system according to the overlay compensation; and thereafter performing a lithography exposing process to the resist layer by the lithography system, thereby imaging the IC pattern to the resist layer.